By Julie Shaw
Vital efforts to conserve the natural wealth in the Guinean Forests of West Africa will receive an additional $2.1 million in support from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF).
The new grants are part of a major CEPF program to sustain and build on advances made possible during its initial five years of investment in many of Earth’s biodiversity hotspots, the most biologically rich yet threatened regions.
Based on an analysis of the $6.2 million CEPF investment in this region to date, CEPF recently awarded a package of grants to ensure financial sustainability for protected area networks and integration of livelihoods and community participation into the overarching conservation agenda. The consolidation program also focuses on scaling up capacity to manage new and expanded protected areas and for universities and organizations to gain essential advanced technical training to take advantage of new conservation opportunities, such as carbon markets.
The geographic focus is on the Upper Guinean Forest Ecosystem, which extends from Guinea into eastern Sierra Leone and eastward through Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana into western Togo.
The initial five-year investment had significant impact in improving civil society capacity in the region, increasing biological knowledge, promoting a better conservation vision and improving community participation in conservation. For example, 18 national organizations and private sector partners expanded their staff, diversity of abilities and total coverage with our support. At least seven international groups expanded their in-country national staff, abilities and activities.
Partners helped conserve 186,268 hectares of land, including the creation of the 13,568-hectare Nimba Nature Reserve in Liberia and the expansion of Sapo National Park in Liberia. With our support, Liberia established its first coherent legal framework for conservation of forest resources. Numerous other protected areas also benefited, such as Marahoué, Mont Peko and Tai national parks in Côte d’Ivoire and Tiwai Island Wildlife Sanctuary in Sierra Leone. These and other areas, such as classified forests and forest reserves in Guinea and Togo, benefited from improved monitoring, management and educational outreach to local communities.
CEPF awarded the new grant funds to initiatives based on their alignment with the CEPF investment priorities developed for the consolidation portfolio. Five organizations received funding as part of the new three-year investment cycle. Those approved for funding are listed according to investment priority met:
Investment Priority 1: Ensure financial sustainability in the hotspot.
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Royal Society for the Protection of Birds: $200,000 to ensure long-term sustainability via carbon financing in the community forests bordering the 75,000-hectare Gola Forest Reserves in Sierra Leone as a means to protect natural forests. Carbon projects will become government policy in Sierra Leone based on the pilot programs established in community forests surrounding the Gola Forest Reserves.
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Conservation International (CI): $799,930 to ensure long-term financing for priority protected areas in the Upper Guinean Forest by assessing and pursuing investment opportunities, ensuring legislation is conducive to conservation investment, and updating financial plans to support Liberia’s protected area system. CI will explore and establish funding mechanisms in Liberia for recurrent costs of the protected areas, consultations on establishment of new protected areas and conservation-friendly economic development around protected areas. CI will also generate continuing interest and commitment to West African conservation through a regional conference.
Investment priority 2: Integrate livelihoods and community participation into the conservation agenda through a mentored small grants program.
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Environmental Foundation for Africa: $250,000 to conduct further work in ecotourism and sustainable community development in and around the Tiwai Island Wildlife Sanctuary in Sierra Leone. The organization will share lessons from the Tiwai Island experience with the region via the establishment of a Biodiversity and Alternative Energy Learning Center, which will encourage learning exchanges and opportunities in the region.
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Fauna and Flora International (FFI): $249,440 to consolidate achievements of the Tiwai Island Tourism Initiative in Sierra Leone and the Nimba Hunting and Bushmeat Initiative in Guinea and scale these up in communities around Nimba and other locations in the Upper Guinean Forest. FFI will document successful interventions in pilot community-based organizations at Nimba Mountain that focus on livelihood alternatives to bushmeat, and create a strategy for consolidating and scaling up around Nimba in Guinea and Sapo National Park in Liberia.
Investment priority 3: Secure and sustain capacity-building gains through targeted conservation.
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BirdLife International: $599,984 to sustain and build on CEPF capacity-building gains by working closely with beneficiaries of past initiatives as well as university staff and researchers to secure existing capacity and support young graduates to pursue higher studies. BirdLife will support collaboration and exchange of information among protected area managers, develop and make available an online toolkit for improved protected area management, and develop modules for in-service capacity building.